'Fahim Ansari travelled to Pakistan before Mumbai attacks'

LAHORE: Indian national Fahim Ansari, an alleged member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, travelled to Pakistan before the 2008 Mumbai attacks using a fake identity, an anti-terrorism court hearing the case was told by an official.

An official of the Federal Investigation Agency told the court yesterday that Ansari, who has been acquitted by Indian courts, had travelled to Pakistan.

Presenting records of the Personal Identification Secure Comparison and Evaluation System (PISCES) of Karachi airport, the official said Ansari travelled under the name of Hammad before the Mumbai attacks in November 2008, court sources told PTI.

The sources said lawyers defending the seven suspects in the case, including LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, objected to the official's testimony, saying it had no relevance to the case.

Meanwhile, an official of Muslim Commercial Bank from Gujranwala district, 80 km from Lahore, also testified in the Pakistani anti-terror court that one of the accused had made transactions in his branch.

The court has adjourned the case till February 12. The seven accused, including Lakhvi, were arrested in 2009 for their alleged role in the attacks in which 166 people were killed and over 300 injured. They have been charged with planning, financing and executing the attacks.

Ansari allegedly made a map of targets in Mumbai. He was acquitted in the case after being given the benefit of the doubt.

In August 2012, India's Supreme Court upheld the acquittal of Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, the two Indians accused of being co-conspirators in the Mumbai attacks. The trial court and the Bombay High Court too gave a clean chit to the duo.

Ansari allegedly obtained a Pakistani passport on November 1, 2007 by using forged documents. The passport was seized from him after his arrest in Uttar Pradesh in another case on February 10, 2008.